Book Review: The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari

Fans of this book, look away. This post is not for you. 😛

This story is about Julian, a millionaire brilliant lawyer who one day collapses in the courthouse. Julian, has a Ferrari, a failed marriage and a sleeping problem. The heart attack gives him a wake up call. He disappears for three years and then shows up again as a younger, healthier monk, sans Ferrari of course.

How did he transform himself? A trip to the mystical land of India. I couldn't help but scoff when I read this bit. While it's true that India is a spiritual land, I found the whole white man comes to Asia for spiritual awakening trope a turn off.

This book will probably not tell you anything that you don't already know. It tells you to constantly learn, to exercise and to value time. The principles are neither based in science nor has research backing. This is not necessarily a bad thing, however, I found it nothing more than just a dictate of how I should live my life. While I don't disagree with the principles, I found nothing compelling me to agree as well (other than common sense).

There was a paragraph / two dedicated to convincing readers on how we don't actually need 8 hours of sleep. I think this is where my interest in the book took a further plunge.

Julian shares his "secrets" to youth by asking you to imagine this scene: you are sitting in a lush garden. In front of you, there is a lighthouse and a sumo wrestler wearing a pink wire cable. The wrestler finds a golden stopwatch and accidentally slips. When he awakens, he sees roses and a path of diamonds. Each of these objects represent a principle in the book.

When I started this post, I wanted to summarize all 7 principles. But the longer I sat on this review, the more I came to resent the kind of book that this was. In the end, I decided to just post up what I'd already done and move on. In true sense, this is a self help book and there's nothing else to it.